Just hours before the vernal equinox, installers from ReVision Energy were shoveling snow off the roof of our Maine Coastal Ecology Center to make way for the reserve’s first major solar array. By afternoon the roof was clear and dry, thanks to its southeast exposure, and the workers went about building an aluminum framework and running wires.

This "History of the Project" was written by Mort Mather around the time the Wells Reserve was dedicated in 1986. Some minor formatting has been done to the originally typewritten document.

Interest in having the land now encompassed within the bounds of the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve preserved for the public good dates back to the early 1960s. At that time the value of salt marshes was beginning to be more fully understood. Studies showed that two-thirds of the commercially important fish depend in some stage in their lives on estuaries. Estuaries are also important areas for commercial development; as the population increases scenic areas near water are under increased pressure for residential development. In the sixties man-made development was filling marshes at an alarming rate. If left unchecked, this development would do serious damage to our fisheries and eliminate most of the coastal habitat for wildlife, endangering more and more species.